From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9–With the same sensitivity and respect that he demonstrated in
Amish Home (Houghton, 1993), Bial introduces readers to a city that was established by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1839. It became the central city in which the Mormons settled. By 1846, the community was the 10th largest in the United Sates. The author paints a picture of life in Nauvoo, from the artisan's shops to the craftsmen who worked and sold their products there to the Mormons' devotion to their religion, and of the climate that led to its abandonment. This effectively written account provides a sympathetic but balanced introduction to Mormon beliefs and the reasons that compelled thousands of people to leave their homes during the winter of 1846. Excellent color photographs grace almost every page, helping readers to acquire an even deeper sense of place. One illustration is mislabeled. (Identified as the graves of church leader Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, and his wife Emma, the picture actually shows the graves of Joseph's parents and some of his grandchildren.) However, this is a small distraction in a well-done work.
–Deanna Romriell, Salt Lake City Library, UT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Few people today have heard of Nauvoo, Illinois, though Bial reports that it was once the tenth-biggest city in the nation. This beautifully illustrated book traces the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormons, focusing on the period from 1839 to 1846, when they lived in Nauvoo. Persecuted and driven from New York, the Mormons eventually reached Illinois, where they built their new city. It flourished until the governor and people in neighboring towns turned against them. Soon after a drunken mob killed the religion's founder, Joseph Smith, 14,000 Mormons abandoned Nauvoo in "the largest forced migration in American history." Among the many serene illustrations are period portraits and clear, well-composed photographs depicting the exteriors and interiors of restored and reconstructed buildings in present-day Nauvoo. The book concludes with bibliographies, but there is no index. Focusing on the town and early Mormon history, this well-written account also sheds light on nineteenth-century American religious intolerance.
Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
